Don’t preen yourself on any distinction that is not your own. If the preening horse should say “I am beautiful,” it would be acceptable. But when you are preening and say, “I have a beautiful horse,” admit that you are preening yourself on a good quality that belongs to the horse. What, then, is your own? The management of impressions. So whenever you are in harmony with nature in the way you perform this function, that’s the time to preen yourself; for then you will have a good thing that is your own to preen yourself on. (Ench 6)
Don’t preen yourself on any distinction that is not your own. If the preening horse should say “I am beautiful,” it would be acceptable. But when you are preening and say, “I have a beautiful horse,” admit that you are preening yourself on a good quality that belongs to the horse. What, then, is your own? The management of impressions. So whenever you are in harmony with nature in the way you perform this function, that’s the time to preen yourself; for then you will have a good thing that is your own to preen yourself on. (Ench 6)
If Epictetus were teaching today, he would probably not choose a horse as the object of his lesson. Instead, he might say, “Don’t preen yourself on your expensive sports car, sparking diamond bracelet, large, finely appointed house, etc., because the good qualities of those possessions do not belong to you.” The object does not matter; the lesson remains the same.
Preening Oneself
The first thing we need to do with this lesson is to understand the meaning of the word “preen” in this passage. Most translators use the English word “elated” in Encheiridion 6. However, A.A. Long chose the word “preen” for his translation, and I think his choice brings out the whole meaning of this passage.
When I referred to my resources, I discovered the Greek verb used in this passage means to “lift up and set on.”[1] There are two aspects of this verb: to lift up and to set on. Therefore, Epictetus is doing more than warning us not to feel a sense of elation or pride when we look at our expensive sports car, sparking diamond bracelet, large, finely appointed house, etc. We could feel that sense of elation or pride while we’re alone, lying in bed, or daydreaming sitting in a park. The word “elated” seems to overlook the public aspect of this passage, and that may be why A.A. Long chose the word “preen.”
The online Oxford Learner’ Dictionaries offers the following definition of preen when used as a transitive verb, which is the case in this passage:
[transitive] preen yourself (on something) (usually disapproving) to feel very pleased with yourself about something and show other people how pleased you are.[2]
That definition helps us understand Encheiridion 6. Epictetus is warning us not to show off our possessions as if their good qualities somehow transfer to us and lift us up in the eyes of others. The word “preen” is often used to describe a person grooming and admiring himself or herself in a mirror. But that’s not the whole meaning here. Likewise, the word “preen” may bring to mind the myth of Narcissus. Many of you are likely familiar with that Greek myth, from which we get the psychological construct of the Narcissist. Narcissus was a beautiful young man who wandered upon a still pool of water while he was hunting. When he saw his own reflection in the pool of water, he fell in love with it and remained there staring at it for the remainder of his life.
While Narcissus was quite happy to remain at the pool, staring at and loving his reflection, that is not the point of Epictetus’ lesson. However, with some modification and modernization of that myth, we can make Epictetus’ point clear.
Imagine a modern version of Narcissus who walks into their bathroom one day and sees their reflection in the mirror. They feel elated by their own beauty. WOW, they think, I look hot. So, they pull their smartphone out and take a photo of themselves in the mirror. After admiring the picture for a second, they post it on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Why? Because they want others to see how attractive they are. They are trying to lift themselves up by setting their attractiveness on display for others to see. They want others to attribute their beauty to them so they will be lifted up in the eyes of others. At this point, you might be thinking, but that is their attractiveness; that is a quality that belongs to them. Not exactly. Here is Epictetus on the topic:
But what does Zeus have to say about this? ‘If it had been possible, Epictetus, I would have ensured that your poor body and petty possessions were free and immune from hindrance. But as things are, you mustn’t forget that this body isn’t truly your own, but is nothing more than cleverly moulded clay. (Discourses 1.1.10-11)
According to Stoicism, our body is not up to us. We do not create our bodies. Yes, we take care of our body, and we can make it look better in some ways. Nevertheless, we are not in complete control of what happens to our bodies, and we cannot prevent them from getting sick, broken, or old. In Encheiridion 1, our body is the first item on the list of things that are not up to us.
If you prefer a more analogous modern equivalent, I will offer the person who takes a photo of his flashy sports car or her shiny diamond bracelet and posts it on social media for others to admire and envy. Again, they want others to think highly of them because of the possessions they own. My purpose here is not to analyze why people behave this way. Instead, I am interested in the reason Epictetus warns us about doing so. That brings us to the next concept in this passage we need to examine.
Qualities that do not belong to us.
Yes, you own a flashy red sports car, but Epictetus would tell you the qualities of that car do not belong to you; they belong to the sports car.
That’s a beautiful diamond bracelet you own, Epictetus might say, but that beauty does not belong to you; it belongs to the bracelet.
I hope you’re starting to get the point. The qualities of our possessions, even the qualities of our body, are not ours, and they are not up to us. Therefore, we are mistaken when we attempt to lift ourselves up in the eyes of others by wrongly thinking we can transfer the good qualities of our possessions to our soul or self.
Sadly, there is a reasonable motive for the behavior Epictetus is warning us against in Encheiridion 6. People do judge us based on our looks and possessions. Our character is not typically the first quality society uses to evaluate us. In fact, a person’s character may be several places down the list of qualities most people look for in a friend, life partner, employee, etc. Here’s an experiment you can try to prove this point. Tell a young man you want to introduce him to a young woman you know. Then say, “She’s really sweet and a good person.” What image just popped in his head? You know what he’s imagining, and it’s not a gorgeous female who looks great in yoga pants. Do the same with a young woman. Hey, I think you should meet my friend. I think you’ll like him. “He’s a really nice guy and a good person.” What image just popped into her head. She’s probably not picturing a hot guy with a muscular physique and a flashy sports car.
Even though we described both people with positive character traits, we may not get an immediate positive response. Why? A good character may not make the top three traits on their list. I don’t think that’s because people consistently undervalue character. I think it has more to do with the images our society offers as “good.” Movies, television, and commercials sell us images of the “good,” and we unconsciously buy into them. Additionally, we cannot see a person’s character immediately, so we look for other qualities to quickly determine another person’s value.
In the West, in particular, we were raised to identify the value of other people by their appearance, job, clothing, the car they drive, the house they own, etc. Pick up any success book, and you will likely come across some version of the “fake it till you make it” strategy for success. What is that? It’s a tactic whereby you wear nice clothes, an expensive watch, and drive an expensive car to leave others with the impression you are already successful, even though you haven’t arrived yet. You fake it till you make it. Success books typically offer this tactic to salespeople where their image is thought to influence potential buyers. Many real estate agents and outside sales professionals employ this tactic, and it works. If you’re interviewing real estate agents to sell your house, you’re more likely to pick the one who drives up in a Mercedes wearing nicely fitted clothing over the Honda Prius driving disheveled looking realtor.
We tend to make assumptions about people based on their appearance, which may not be justified at all. As Stoics, we must look beyond the façade and attempt to see a person’s character, and we cannot judge character by appearance. Consider Socrates. He was a pretty homely guy based on historical accounts, and he didn’t dress for success. If a modern equivalent to Socrates approached you today, would you ignore him based on his appearance and attire? I suspect most of us would.
Before we move on, I want to make one point clear. The Stoics were not opposed to having possessions. Yes, they prescribed ascetic practices for training purposes, but they were not renunciates. In reference to another passage in the Discourses where Epictetus warned about placing value on possessions, the Stoic Scholar A.A. Long wrote:
Does it not follow, then, that Stoic philosophy taught the utter indifference of owning and protecting property? It does not follow, and that for two reasons. The first reason is that, though wealth, as an external commodity, has no moral value in Stoicism, it has instrumental value for `living in agreement with nature’, and should be preferred, salva virtute, to poverty. The Stoic, then, is not a Cynic. Given the choice and given consistency with moral principles, Stoics prefer wealth and health to poverty and sickness, and they ground that choice in a premise about nature, which here refers to the teleology of human nature and its identification with rationality.[3]
Nevertheless, the Stoics made it clear that possessions can impede our progress if we are not careful. When we practice disciplining our desires and aversions, we typically think about things we desire but don’t currently have, or something we fear and want to avoid. It’s easy to overlook our desires to maintain a hold on things we already possess. The desire to keep a possession or the fear of losing a possession is just as damaging to our psyche as desiring something we do not currently possess and fearing circumstances we don’t currently face. It’s pathos in both cases. Why? Because we are counting on externals for our well-being when the only thing that can produce well-being is an excellent character (virtue). We might wreck our car, lose our jewelry, and our house may burn to the ground. What will happen to your well-being if it’s dependent on those externals? Epictetus already told us in chapter 1: we will be frustrated, pained, and troubled, and we will find fault with gods and men.
The Stoics were not opposed to possessions; however, they warned us to ensure our possessions don’t own us.
The Management of Impressions
Interestingly, at the end of Encheiridion 6, Epictetus tells us there is one thing we are entitled to preen ourselves on: the management of impressions. In Encheiridion 6, Epictetus asks, “What, then, is your own?” Then answers, “The management of impressions.”
I provided a detailed explanation of impressions in Episode 9 of Stoicism on Fire, where I discussed the Discipline of Assent. Briefly, impressions are presented to our senses by the outside world. As I noted in Episode 9, sense impressions are derived from an existent object or fact; they come from “what is” in the world (DL VII 50). The technical term for an impression is phantasia. Impressions are not a problem in themselves; they are simply sense perceptions: sight, sound, smell, taste. The problem begins when we instantly attach value judgments to impressions without proper consideration or adequate information. Pierre Hadot offers this insightful passage on the management of impressions in his inspiring book The Inner Citadel:
The soul or guiding principle thus has three fundamental activities. In the first place, as it receives the images which come from bodily sensations, it develops an inner discourse, and this is what constitutes judgment. The soul tells itself what a given object or event is; in particular, it tells itself what the object is for the soul, that is, what it is in the soul’s view. Here we have the central node of the whole of Stoicism: that of inner discourse, or judgments expressed on the subject of representations. As Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius never tire of saying, everything is a matter of judgment. It is not things themselves that trouble us, but our representations of these things, the ideas we form of them, and the inner discourse which we formulate about them. Desire and impulses to action are the necessary results of this inner discourse: if we desire something, it is because we have told ourselves that the thing in question is good; likewise, if we want to do something, it is because we have told ourselves that it was a good thing.[4]
In Episode 9, I also provided a tactic for managing impressions. I will repeat it here. When an impression presses itself on our senses, we should:
- StopIt
- StripIt Bare
- See It from the Cosmic Viewpoint
If you need a refresher on the topic, listen to episode 9. Briefly, “Stop it” entails putting the brakes on an impression so it does not carry you away with irrational thoughts into a state of fear, anxiety, anger, etc. Then, strip the impression bare of the almost immediate value judgment you probably already attached to it. Remember, the event that created the impression is neither “good” nor “bad,” it is simply “what is,” and the impression is nothing more than a representation of “what is.” The judgment that it is “good” or “bad” is yours, and that judgment causes your psychological disturbance.
Finally, view the event and the resulting impression from a cosmic perspective. If you knew all the circumstances surrounding this event, you could see it from a different perspective. Give the cosmos the benefit of the doubt and trust that all events serve some purpose even though they may appear disturbing or even traumatic at that moment. As practicing Stoics, we must keep the cosmic viewpoint in mind. As John Sellars, a University of Oxford scholar, points out in his classic book titled Stoicism:
One aspect of “living according to Nature” is cultivating a new perspective on the world that tries to see things from the point of view of Nature as a whole rather than merely from one’s own limited perspective. This is what Marcus Aurelius tries to accomplish in a number of the sections of the Meditations…[5]
On the same topic, A.A. Longs wrote:
The Stoics seem to be committed to the claim that from the cosmic perspective everything which happens accords with Nature and is therefore right.[6]
This brings us to the final concept Epictetus covers in Encheiridion 6—in harmony with Nature.
In Harmony with Nature
If you read the Stoic texts or any credible scholarship on Stoicism, you will quickly be exposed to the concept of living in accordance or agreement with Nature. As John Sellars points out in his classic book on Stoicism:
This ethical ideal proposed by the Stoics is famously presented as living in accordance with Nature.[7]
Here is one of many passages from Epictetus’s Discourses on the topic:
Come now, show me what progress you’re making in this regard. Suppose I were talking with an athlete and said, Show me your shoulders, and he were to reply, ‘Look at my jumping-weights.’ That’s quite enough of you and your weights! What I want to see is what you’ve achieved by use of those jumping-weights. ‘Take the treatise On Motivation and see how thoroughly I’ve read it.’ That’s not what I’m seeking to know, slave, but how you’re exercising your motives to act and not to act, and how you’re managing your desires and aversions, and how you’re approaching all of this, and how you’re applying yourself to it, and preparing for it, and whether in harmony with nature or out of harmony with it. (Discourses 1.4.13-14)
As A.A. Long wrote:
The coherence of Stoicism is based upon the belief that natural events are so causally related to one another that on them a set of propositions can be supported which will enable a man to plan a life wholly at one with Nature or God.[8]
Living in agreement with Nature entails being in accord with our rational human nature and the rationality of cosmic Nature as well. This agreement is stated beautifully in one of my favorite passages from Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, which I often repeat on this podcast:
Everything suits me that suits your designs, O my universe. (Meditations 4.23)
Conclusion
I suspect each of us could come up with a long list of possessions, accomplishments, associations, positions, titles, etc., we have preened ourselves on. Again, none of these are inherently good or bad; they are indifferents. Stoic practice does not require us to live as renunciates who abandon all possessions and forego all accomplishments for an entirely ascetic, monastic life. Nevertheless, Stoic practice does require us to stop placing value on these things a “goods.” They are not. Instead, they are preferred indifferents at best. As such, they have no bearing on our character or our well-being.
If you want to make progress on the Stoic path, stop relying on the good qualities of things or titles you possess to lift yourself up in the eyes of others. Those qualities do not belong to you. Instead, focus your attention on the only quality that does belong to you: an excellent character that can only be developed if you properly manage the impressions presented to your rational faculty. If you manage your impressions well, you will be in agreement with Nature. Epictetus said that is something to preen yourself on. However, if you live that way, you won’t need to preen and lift yourself up in the eyes of others. That will happen naturally. Others will notice there is something different about the way you act and react to life’s events.
I leave you with this thought from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius,
The time you have left is short. Live it as if you were on a mountain. Here or there makes no difference, if wherever you live you take the world as your city. Let men see, let them observe a true man living in accordance with nature… No more roundabout discussion of what makes a good man. Be one! (Meditations 10.15-16, Hammond trans.)
Until next time, stop preening yourself on the qualities of your possessions. Those good qualities do not belong to you. If you want something to preen yourself on, manage your impressions and live in agreement with Nature.
ENDNOTES
[1] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman
[2] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/preen
[3] Long, A. A. (2006). From Epicurus to Epictetus: Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy. Oxford University Press. (Kindle Locations 4175-4179). Kindle Edition
[4] Hadot, P. (1998). The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Harvard University Press. p. 84
[5] Sellars, J. (2006). Stoicism. University of California Press. p. 126
[6] Long, A. A. (1974). Hellenistic Philosophy; Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. University of California Press. p. 181
[7] Sellars, J. (2006). p. 125
[8] Long, A. A. (1974). Hellenistic Philosophy; Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. University of California Press. p. 108
